Memoirs of a Generally Bitter Young Woman
"The highs and lows of life"
Nonsensical stories interlaced with tidbits of truth, irony and poetry.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Royal Wedding and Crumpets

I've been asked a lot this week how I enjoyed the Royal Wedding last Friday… and the answer is: A LOT.

I loved every moment of if so much that I didn't really mind waking up at 2 am to watch it from beginning to end (all 8 hours of it.) The whole thing was just so ... regal. It made me a little nostalgic for my own wedding. I admired Kate's dress. Her veil, her tiara, her beautiful smile. William looked so nice in his red uniform. And they both looked really happy. I'm not a professional entertainment guide, or a royal spokes person, but Will and Kate looked genuinely really really happy to be together. Kate had that wedding day glow.

The wedding service was beautiful. Long. But beautiful.. The sermon given at the ceremony was very eloquent. The words were chosen wisely and spoken so well. The Bishop of London, the Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Richard Chartres,

gave the royal couple advice that we could all use in our own marriages, or life in general. I highly recommend a read through of the service, even if you listened to it the first time.

"Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves"

But even with the fancy words and advice given to Will and Kate, I gained such a positive confirmation of my own marriage. It made me appreciate my simple Mormon wedding that doesn't involve singing or pomp. Now let us pray, now let us sing, now let us pray and sing some more... stand up sit down fight! fight! fight! I prefer the simpleness of my wedding. "Yes" is the only word we had to speak, and then John was mine and I was his and we are so happy. I'm not preaching, or getting on my soapbox or anything, but I just want to say how absolutely thankful I am for my temple marriage. I'm thankful that my sealing to my husband is for "Time AND All Eternity." When I hear weddings binding people "Until Death Do Us Part" it just makes me sad. I know that not everyone believes what I believe and that to some my temple marriage is just the Mormon "pomp and circumstance" or the way we like to shut others out of one of the most important days of our lives... but to me, if I love someone enough to marry them, than why wouldn't I want to be with them for all eternity. So whether you believe it or not, the words "For time and all eternity" are a comfort beyond belief for a life that is so temporary.

Nevertheless, I wish the Royal couple well in their lives together and hope that their marriage will be steadfast and be an example to the world of what love and marriage should be.

For the occasion (once I got out of bed) I wore my tiara, I wore my replica ring. I even wore a shirt which I have deemed "royal" purple. I'm a Royal fan even though I'm only half British… and even that giver of my British half is less then interested in the goings-on in the Royal family. Oh well. Some days I really wish I was full British. I wish I lived in England (or Wales, or Ireland, or Scotland.) But in the end, I'm here and this is where I'll stay because I'm too afraid to move away from the things and people I know to make a new start. I'm a chicken. That's really all it comes down to when I think about branching out into something new. That being said, I do try new things in the safe confines of my kitchen. For breakfast on the bless-ed day of the Royal Nuptials I opted to try something new. Crumpets. I'd never had them before, but you always hear about having crumpets with a spot of tea.

SIDE NOTE: I'm not a fan of tea in any form although I do have friends that try to convince me that herbal tea is quite good. I was even offered some peach herbal tea that very same night, but I turned my nose up at it because I am just not a fan. Yuck!

These were pretty easy to make. The batter is simple and the cooking directions seem to be pretty straight forward. You do need to have some special tools handy for their cooking, but I figured that the purchase of such tools may come in handy further along in life too. What tools you ask? Well, these ones, of course: English Muffin Rings. I bought mine from the other vendor option they have on amazon.com so I got 8 rings for about $6 + shipping, but considering that King Arthur Flour wants me to pay $11 for 8 rings I think I got a pretty good deal. I guess now that I own them I should learn how to make English Muffins as well. You could also use metal cookie cutters for this, or I read some where that if you use empty tuna cans they work just as well. Don't forget to grease the inside of the ring before adding your batter or it makes removing the crumpet pretty difficult (and hot!)

1) Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and beat vigorously for 2 minutes. A stand or hand mixer, set on high speed, work well here.

2) Cover the bowl, and let the batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour. It will expand and become bubbly. Towards the end of the rest, preheat a griddle to medium-low, about 325°F. If you don't have an electric griddle, preheat a frying pan; it shouldn't be as hot as the temperature you use to cook pancakes.

3) Lightly grease the griddle or frying pan, and place well-greased 3 3/4" English muffin rings in the pan, as many as will fit. (If you don't have English muffin rings, use well-cleaned tuna cans, from which you've removed the top and bottom.) Pour sticky batter by the scant 1/4-cupful into each ring; a muffin scoop works well here.

4) After about 4 minutes, use a pair of tongs to slip the rings off. Cook the crumpets for a total of about 10 minutes on the first side, until their tops are riddled with small bubbles/holes. They should be starting to look a bit dry around the edges. Their bottoms will be a mottled, light-golden brown. Note: They probably won't be as full of holes as store-bought crumpets; that's OK.

5) Turn the crumpets over, and cook for an additional 5 minutes, to finish cooking the insides and to brown the tops gently. This isn't traditional; "real" crumpets are white on top, but the crumpet police won't chastise you for adding a little color to the tops.

6) Remove the crumpets from the pan, and repeat with the remaining batter, until all the crumpets are cooked. Serve warm. Or cool completely, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature. To enjoy, warm in the toaster. Serve with butter, or butter and jam.

Yield: about twenty 3 3/4" crumpets.

The first batch I could were really doughy after cooking for what I felt like was a long time so they got tossed, and the second batch I tried using a little less batter and they seemed to work out much better. After cooking until they were thoroughly browned they still tasted a little doughy… I called my dad. "Dad, what consistency are crumpets supposed to be?" I asked. After expressing he jealousy over my eating crumpets he stated that they should be "a little doughy" in the middle. SCORE! I got something right. I think it's just my American cooking ways that says that something should be cooked completely (except for steak, of course.)

After adding some butter and jam or honey I'm happy to say that the crumpets were very good. Mmmm! I packed some away in my freezer for later consumption, and said to myself: "Self, I think I'll try making those again. They were good." And my self agreed with me.

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."- St Catherine of Siena

Books I Have Read

My Evil Minions

Things I've Learned/Interesting Facts:

Just because you stop at a stop light doesn't mean the car behind you will.

My husband frequently mocks me because I didn't cry at my wedding, but I cried when the Lone Gunmen died on the X-Files.
I hate being sued because as long as it's an open case I can't share the really good zingers I come up with...Sometimes I miss Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch.

Quotes I Love:

"It's not about charity, it's about justice." - Bono

"Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone. " - Mitt Romney

Up to a point, a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; but there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes it to be. Everyone has it within his power to say, this I am today, this I shall be tomorrow.” - Louis L’Mour"You can't surrender to melancholy; that's too easy. Joy is a subject I go on and on about. It's one of the only emotions you can't contrive. It's impossible. Despair and anger are easier to convey. Joy is right next to happiness, which is not so interesting, and sentimentality. Great rock 'n' roll, the raw stuff, is pure joy. It's that sense of being alive, of being grateful for your pulse." - BONO"Because we live in a world where there is much harshness, hostility and meanness, there is also much need for all of us to be more merciful." - Gordon B. Hinckley